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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28807707">Wellspring</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mysterious_Prophetess/pseuds/Mysterious_Prophetess'>Mysterious_Prophetess</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Bittersweet Memories [9]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi | Spirited Away, 僕のヒーローアカデミア | Boku no Hero Academia | My Hero Academia</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Gen, Good Shigaraki Tomura | Shimura Tenko, Onmyoji Bakugo Katsuki, Onmyoji Shimura Tenko, Rating is for Katsuki's mouth, Reincarnation, Sensei | All For One is Midoriya Izuku's Parent, Sensei | All For One is Not Midoriya Hisashi, Spirited Away AU, Tuna's Spirited Away AU, dad for one</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-01-18</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-01-18</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-13 10:21:07</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,384</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28807707</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mysterious_Prophetess/pseuds/Mysterious_Prophetess</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>A river is being restored. </p>
<p>Katsuki's left on his own as his mentor is called away by men in suits and he might have to deal with a potentially cranky river god. </p>
<p>Izuku is given training by both his Uncle and Father for one day reigning as a river god, as he was meant to be.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Bittersweet Memories [9]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/2100699</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>14</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>133</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Wellspring</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p class="p1">Fourteen-year-old Bakugo Katsuki sat through his science class with the usual grace of any teenager who’d rather be outside on a nice day.</p>
<p class="p1">“And….tomorrow we’ll have a guest speaker from the River Restoration Project.” Katsuki looked up at that and saw a pair of kanji on the board that made his vision narrow to only those Kanji. Izu and Ku.</p>
<p class="p1">“Teacher, why are they naming it Dehisa? I thought the river had a different name a long time ago?” A nerdy extra asked.</p>
<p class="p1">“Because the family who dammed up the river insisted on renaming it as part of an agreement with the government to release the headwaters back into the riverbed. In addition to removing the dam, they’re also footing the bill for the few properties that needed to be relocated,” the teacher said. <em>And that’s the real reason they get to put their name on the river. I’m calling it the Deku River and no one can stop me.</em></p>
<p class="p1">————————— —————————</p>
<p class="p1">“Oy, Geezer?” Katsuki said whenever he stepped into the shop. The lights were out, which was odd because this was prime rich-idiot time. The back room’s light was on. So Katsuki dropped his bag and books at his desk and opened the door and saw Tenko was preparing something.</p>
<p class="p1">“What’s this shit?”</p>
<p class="p1">“Hey, brat. Hear about the River?” Tenko asked.</p>
<p class="p1">“Yeah, what’s that gotta do with the spells and shit?”</p>
<p class="p1">“Rivers tend to have river gods so I’m preparing spells just in case it’s pissed off at being dammed up for centuries by selfish pricks,” Tenko said.</p>
<p class="p1">“Can’t you just use earth magic?”</p>
<p class="p1">“Brat. I know I assigned you a reading that covered this but what form do River Gods take?” Tenko said.</p>
<p class="p1">“Why the hell does that matter?”</p>
<p class="p1">“Katsuki.” Katsuki went through his mental index of spirits and groaned.</p>
<p class="p1">“You’re telling me because those asses dammed up the river, we might have an angry <em>dragon</em> on our hands?”</p>
<p class="p1">“Now you see why I’m getting ready in advance,” Tenko said.</p>
<p class="p1">“And if there isn’t one or it’s not angry?”</p>
<p class="p1">“Then we’re lucky and have at least one friendly ally incase whatever’s happened to Izuku is too dangerous to handle,” Tenko said.</p>
<p class="p1">“Thought we were just hunting down clues.”</p>
<p class="p1">“We are but sometimes shit can be dangerous for us humans to poke at,” Tenko said.The bell rang and the pair exchanged looks before they walked out to see men in business suits had arrived.</p>
<p class="p1">“Hello, may I help you?” Tenko asked as he flipped on the main light.</p>
<p class="p1">“Tenko Shimura. Onmyoji. Age 19. Expert in sealing and offensive magic,” a man in the lead said.</p>
<p class="p1">“If you believe in onmyodo, yes,” Tenko said.</p>
<p class="p1">“We’ve reason to believe your talents will be needed to solve a case. Utmost secrecy will need to be abided by,” the lead suit said.</p>
<p class="p1">“What about my apprentice?” Tenko said.</p>
<p class="p1">“We have no need of his services, and trust he’ll keep quiet.”</p>
<p class="p1">“Sure,” Katsuki said after Tenko gave him a look.</p>
<p class="p1">“Then it looks like I’ll take your case. Just give me a moment to leave instructions for my apprentice while I’m gone and send emails to my clientele alerting them of Katsuki stepping up to cover for as long as this takes,” Tenko said.</p>
<p class="p1">“A good attitude to have,” the lead suit said before they left. Once they were out Tenko cursed.</p>
<p class="p1">“Of course I get a quest right when this is all going down,” Tenko said.</p>
<p class="p1">“I got it. Leave me whatever instructions you need to,” Katsuki said.</p>
<p class="p1">“Just try to be pleasant brat and follow my notes in the binder in my desk for the divination clients. If any onmyodo stuff happens, call Danjuro and Manami. If the dragon is pissed use these spells to slow it down and call Ishiki or the Iida Clan. Numbers are in my shitlist book. You know where it is. Lastly, send any romance divinations to Manami,” Tenko said.</p>
<p class="p1">“Have you done this before?” Kastuki said.</p>
<p class="p1">“Once. Danjuro was with me at the time. Just, don’t be a moron and I’ll be back as soon as possible. If not, the shop’s yours if anything happens to me. Danjuro knows this and will help you run it until you’re out of school,” Tenko said.</p>
<p class="p1">“Who’d even want this shitty shop,” Katsuki said.</p>
<p class="p1">“I know this is asking a lot of you, but be good,” Tenko said.</p>
<p class="p1">—————————— ———————————————————————————</p>
<p class="p1">Izuku’s day started like it had ever since The Arrangement had been reached. Breakfast, avoiding his Father’s machinations to get him to skip out on a day of work and flying to his Uncle’s domain. When he arrived, though, there was a new person waiting for him with his uncle. Well, not new, but a face he knew well.</p>
<p class="p1">“Urara!” Izuku said happily.</p>
<p class="p1">“Deku?! You look so different!” She said.</p>
<p class="p1">“You do too! How’re you here?”</p>
<p class="p1">“I offered Urara a job as a courier and she accepted it,” Uncle said.</p>
<p class="p1">“Do you really need two of us?” Izuku said.</p>
<p class="p1">“Two would get the work done more quickly and I have something to discuss with you. Urara, please take these letters out and collect any replies they might have,” Uncle said as he handed her a satchel.</p>
<p class="p1">“Of course, boss! See you later Deku!” Urara bounced out the door.</p>
<p class="p1">“Did I do something wrong?” Izuku asked.</p>
<p class="p1">“What. No! Of course not, but you’re getting older and I think it’s time you saw what I did all day as a river god. One day, you’ll likely preside over a river of your own and it’s never too early to learn,” his Uncle said.</p>
<p class="p1">“What if it gets dammed again?” Izuku asked.</p>
<p class="p1">
  <em>It was so dry!</em>
</p>
<p class="p1">“You’re older and more established now. If whatever river you bond with dries up or is dammed you’ll be strong enough to get to the spirit world and find me or your Father. We’ll keep you safe. It’s one of the few bits of common ground we have left,” his Uncle said.</p>
<p class="p1">“Father…ferries the spirits of the dead from the human world to the spirit world. Do you have extra duties like that?”</p>
<p class="p1">“Afraid not. I mostly keep to my river and its tributaries. Since you’ll be more like me in the long run, this will be a better way to train you than attempting to emulate my brother.”</p>
<p class="p1">—————————— —————————</p>
<p class="p1">“You seem cleaner than usual. Did my brother not have any correspondence for you to deliver?” Father asked at dinner.</p>
<p class="p1">“Uncle hired help and decided he’d let me shadow him in case I was ever in charge of a river,” Izuku said.</p>
<p class="p1">“That was not his place, Little Stream.”</p>
<p class="p1">“Since I’ll only ever govern one river, I’d think it was more his place than yours,” Izuku replied.</p>
<p class="p1">“I’m sending one of my messengers to my brother later. Tomorrow you’ll shadow <em>me</em>,” Father said.</p>
<p class="p1">“Won’t the vastness of your many rivers be too different for comparable training?” Izuku asked.</p>
<p class="p1">“Be that as it may, there are aspects that will carry over and seeing as you will gain a river when I say so, it would be better for you to learn with the rivers you might one day bond with unless my brother is going to give you his?” Father said.</p>
<p class="p1">“No and I wouldn’t want him to,” Izuku said.</p>
<p class="p1">“Why is that? His river is…impressive,” Father said.</p>
<p class="p1">“Because it’s part of him and not me, and he does so much good as the River God of the Tone,” Izuku said.</p>
<p class="p1">“It’s moments like that I see so very much of your mother in you,” Father said.</p>
<p class="p1">“Thank you,” Izuku said.</p>
<p class="p1">———————————— ————————————</p>
<p class="p1">
  <strong><em>The Next</em> Day</strong>
</p>
<p class="p1">Izuku’s head was spinning by midday whenever he and Father broke to eat.</p>
<p class="p1">“How do you not go insane from all the paperwork?” Izuku asked as he reached for his chopsticks.</p>
<p class="p1">“I delegate a lot of my responsibilities to underlings, Izuku. I control all the rivers—except your Uncle’s—and other dragons have sworn to me for their existence and those who aren’t helping the ferry girls deal with the dead are acting as my vassals taking on the management of the other rivers,” Father said.</p>
<p class="p1">“I see and would that be what I’d become, a vassal?” Izuku asked.</p>
<p class="p1">“No. You’re my heir, Little Stream, and as such would be afforded a more honorable position.”</p>
<p class="p1">“It sounds like a position with a fancy title and extra paperwork,” Izuku said. The smile his Father gave himwas all teeth.</p>
<p class="p1">“That too.”</p>
<p class="p1">——————————— ————————</p>
<p class="p1">Izuku was set to shadowing one of his father’s vassals after he received a message from Kurogiri and disappeared to his main office. The vassal dragon was pleasant enough, but nervous around Izuku.</p>
<p class="p1">“Something Father and Uncle didn’t show me was how do you respond to prayers from humans?” Izuku asked.</p>
<p class="p1">“Direct action, such as clearing obstacles or impurities can be taken or you use your powers to help the river life multiply and once you’ve enough time and power, cause rain showers,” the vassal said.</p>
<p class="p1">“Can you change the weather?”</p>
<p class="p1">“No. That’s your Lord Father’s department. I can barely cleanse and make a river more habitable for fish,” the Vassasl said.</p>
<p class="p1">“Oh,” Izuku said.</p>
<p class="p1">“I also deal with the other river spirits that inevitably will be drawn by a River Dragon’s presence. Kappa and Frogmen are particularly drawn in by the aura. Sometimes there’s a sachihoko that’ll pop up but that very rare and usually in rivers that flow into the ocean. Oh and occasionally freshwater ningyo. The way to deal with them is it’s your river and you can demand they pay tribute to you in either food or labor. In exchange you’ll shelter them in your waters. It’s common for any subordinate spirits we find to be put to work in helping clean the rivers but humans make awful messes of the world and even all the extra help in the world can’t clean the river without your direct intervention,” the Vassal said.</p>
<p class="p1">——————————— —————————</p>
<p class="p1">Because it was a big deal to have a river restored that would run through their backwoods town, the school thought it’d be a good use of time for the students to be along the ravine to watch the water rush out. Katsuki was relieved because that meant he didn’t have to cut class to set up the spells in case the dragon connected to the river was pissed for being stopped up all this time. The teachers were too busy yapping to notice he’d slipped away. He dug out his brush, ink, papers, and pre-prepared spells just in case. He heard the water rushing long before he saw it. He also saw something he knew none of the shity extras could: a damn <b><em>dragon</em></b> in the waters that swept past them. All he saw was white, green, and some red before it was gone with the water rush.</p>
<p class="p1">
  <em>Shit. If I can’t get to the man-made lake that’s going to empty into, things could get ugly.</em>
</p>
<p class="p1">————————— —————————</p>
<p class="p1">
  <em> <strong>Before</strong> </em>
</p>
<p class="p1">Izuku had finished up his tasks set for him by his Father with some time to relax before dinner but something…drew him. He wasn’t aware of shifting forms until he was in the sky following the strange call. He landed on the edge of his father’s domain and saw a pile of boulders leaking water. He was seized with the urger to destroy them. In doing so he was swept away in a rush of water. No, he <em>was </em> the rush of water. This…this felt right! It was like a part of him had been missing until this very moment. He raced along a dry ravine, the water—his water—around him. There was a set of gates ahead. Not any more, he smashed them and ended up in a lake. He burst into the air and saw there was a calm female spirit strumming a biwa above the surface. She was various shades of blue and looked like she was made of water.</p>
<p class="p1">“Ah, you’re the spirit of the river. Welcome to the world. I am Hinata, spirit of Lake Hinata,” she said with a bow.</p>
<p class="p1">“I’m in the human world?” Izuku said.</p>
<p class="p1">“Strange. You are very much the spirit of these waters but…I see, it would be the only way for you to have survived, Young One. They renamed your river in your absence,” Lady Hinata said.</p>
<p class="p1">“To what?” Izuku asked.</p>
<p class="p1">“Dehisa, for the family who’d dared dam your waters in the first place,” Lady Hinata said.</p>
<p class="p1">“Of course they did,” Izuku said. If it wasn’t his Father it was something else. Wait. Oh.</p>
<p class="p1">“I need to get back to the Spirit World before anyone worries,” Izuku said.</p>
<p class="p1">“Follow your river, you’ll find your way,” Lady Hinata said.</p>
<p class="p1">“Thanks and I, uh, look forward to working with you to keeping our waters clean?” Izuku said.</p>
<p class="p1">“So polite,” Hinata said with a fond smile. Izuku nodded and swam back up into his river. His. River! He focused and soon he was back in the Spirit World and Father was on the bank nearest his domain.</p>
<p class="p1">“It would appear the humans did something good, for once,” Father said as Izuku stepped out of the waters taking on his humanoid form.</p>
<p class="p1">“They renamed it,” Izuku said.</p>
<p class="p1">“Of course they did. Come. We have much to celebrate,” Father said as he ushered Izuku in the direction of his estate.</p>
<p class="p1">——————————— ——————</p>
<p class="p1">Katsuki arrived to see a blue, watery chick playing a biwa in the lake.</p>
<p class="p1">“Oy, seen a dragon?” Katsuki asked.</p>
<p class="p1">“Oh, you see me? Ah. Onmyoji-brat. I did. What’s it matter to you?” The blue chick said.</p>
<p class="p1">“Just making sure he’s not pissed about those dicks damming him up for all these years,” Katsuki said.</p>
<p class="p1">“He was pleasant. Far more than you, child.”</p>
<p class="p1">“Sorry, I was trying to keep the town from getting flooded because of what rich pricks did centuries ago,” Katsuki said.</p>
<p class="p1">“You’re lucky I find your brazen disrespect refreshing,” blue chick said.</p>
<p class="p1">“I’m working on it, uh, Lady?”</p>
<p class="p1">“Good guess. I am the Lady of Lake Hinata,” blue chick—Lady Hinata said as she gestured at the sunflower shaped man-made lake.</p>
<p class="p1">“Nice to meet you. Call me Bakugo, Apprentice Onmyoji,” Katsuki said.</p>
<p class="p1">“Nicely done, Apprentice Bakugo. You’d best get back to your class before your teacher realizes where you’ve gone,” Lady Hinata said before she vanished into her lake’s waters.</p>
<p class="p1">“Fuck.”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I don't want the boys officially reuniting JUST yet. It will be soon enough. </p>
<p>Originally, I wasn't going to give Izuku his first life's river back but I realized him having his river would lead to more interesting possibilities and so, the dam is gone and the Kohino River is now the Dehisa River, which can also be read as the "Izuku" or "Deku" River. Because I wanted the kanji to match without it being blatantly the Izuku River or the Deku River. </p>
<p>Also, Katsuki gets to have the F-bomb for a T fic for once.<br/>Katsuki can say it once, for a treat.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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